Saturday, 4 October 2014

Kampong Boy - Hurstville - Sydney, Australia

Kampong Boy

A Malaysian restaurant in the south of Sydney is a rare find as there aren't many around the area. Three years ago, when I found out that there was a Malaysian restaurant in Hurstville, I really wanted to go and try out the food. However, this has been delayed for years as we never found the opportunity to go. That was until I had a major craving for Hainan chicken rice a few weeks back. You would think I would be over eating chicken rice after consuming it numerous times in Singapore and once in Vietnam, but this hasn't been the case. If something is delicious, I can eat it very often.

Kampong Boy, a Malaysian restaurant located on the quieter end of Forest Road in Hurstville has been open for a number of years. The food must be decent for it to be open till now. I didn't set my expectations high as there isn't much to compare it against in the area.

On a Thursday night, there is a steady flow of customers, though not near full capacity as there are many tables unoccupied. The modern interior looks to have been recently renovated with wooden tables and traditional Malaysian style decorations around the dining room. There is a see through glass partition at the front of the restaurant where they do the grilling.

The menu offers a number of authentic Malaysian dishes such as Bak Kut Teh, Nasi Lemak, Hainan chicken rice etc. The menu looks to have been updated in recent times as it's different to what I've seen online and accordingly the prices have slightly increased too. We decide to stick with the safer options, items which we have tried before at other places.

The 'Nasi Goreng (($12.80)' is the Malaysian version of the fried rice topped with a fried egg. It contains sambal which gives it a spicy kick and unusual ingredients such as anchovies, which are not in the usual fried rice. It was cooked well and wasn't oily like the other dishes that followed.

The 'Fried Kway Teo ($13.80)' was made up of a combination of flat noodles, bean sprouts, prawns, fish cakes, egg and chives, which was unfortunately a letdown. It lacked the wok hei, tasted dry due to the lack of sauce and overall lacked flavour.

The dish that I anticipated and wanted to eat most was the 'Hainan Chicken Rice ($12.80)'. On the plate, everything was nicely presented and it was served with a chilli and dark soy dipping sauce. Even though they gave my favourite part of the chicken, the drumstick, it didn't make a difference as it was plain and dry. Unfortunately, the chicken rice was gluggy and soft. I probably wouldn't order this here again as it wasn't very good.

The 'Chicken Curry ($15.80)' was surprisingly a winner. It was spicy, well cooked and packed with a whole lot of flavour. As you can see from the layer of oil on top, it's extremely oily but what lies beneath is delicious. A very simple curry with chicken and potatoes but it sure won me over.

'Roti ($3.00)' is made fresh in house but I wasn't watching so whether it was made fresh on the day is not guaranteed. Crispy and flaky like how a roti should be but it was once again very oily and together with the oily curry, it didn't go very well together.

'Satay Sticks - 12 Sticks - Beef and Chicken ($16.00)' is grilled perfectly leaving a nice charcoal caramelised exterior, but leaning more towards the sweeter side in terms of taste. Together with a rich peanut sauce, it was delicious, but they could have been more generous with pieces of cucumber and red onion on the side.

Overall, half of what we ate was decent but half of the dishes weren't very good. I'm thankful that there is a Malaysian restaurant in the area that serves authentic food at reasonable prices but unfortunately my craving for Hainanese chicken rice wasn't satisfied. I would come again to try some other dishes but the food was mediocre on the day we went.